I wonder how many people have thrown in the towel on this anime. I’m practically at my limits myself. 

— After returning from whatever prison he was in, Chihiro protects Koume from Haru. The Church faction proceeds to escape. Haru wants to pursue his enemies, but Jun says they need to follow up with Yuri first.

— Elsewhere, we see a beast standing over one of its victims. So y’know, another mystery to worry about. We have three factions vying for control, Chihiro’s missing memories, trying to figure out who’s right and who’s wrong, trying to figure out how to save people from the Red Mist… and now we have a murderous monster on the prowl. Eh.

— Our hero has always been kinda quiet in general, but he’s even more subdued after his encounter with Yuri. She had said something cryptic about his mother — it’s always cryptic — so even though he has no clue what she’s talking about, he can’t get her words out of his head. Isn’t that great, though? The one person who knows anything about his mother drops a one liner than walks off. Meanwhile, the conveniently amnesiac heroes just stands there in complete silence while the audience tries to empathize. Good luck with that, though.

— Shoko elaborates on the Guardian State, aka the third faction. Apparently, their mission is to protect Japan. Since the Church wants to blow up Tokyo, that kinda makes them enemies. But do we learn anything else about the Guardian State? No. Shoko simply insists that they must destroy Tokyo as soon as possible. Unfortunately for her, Chihiro is too busy moping to do much of anything.

— Isshin the barges into the place and yells at everyone for wasting his time. The rest of the Church faction accuse him of possibly leaking information to the enemy. Shrug, maybe he is. Here’s yet another mystery to mull over. Sigh. Afterwards, everyone splits up… kinda.

— From this distance, Inuki looks like Bozo the Clown.

— Chihiro confesses that he remembers nothing from his childhood, which causes Isshin to step out of the shadows and taunt our hero some more. The journalist then proceeds to talk about a failed science experiment gone wrong. Chihiro’s mother was apparently at the center of said disaster. She’s been missing ever since. Hey, y’know why the portal to The Abyss opened up in Shin Megami Tensei? Science. And if Yuri is telling the truth, it looks like science is at fault again! Maybe. Who knows? File that under “mystery.”

— Anyways, Isshin alludes Chihiro being responsible for his father’s death. As a result, it isn’t a stretch of the imagination to think that maybe he killed his mother as well. Maybe. Maybe. But this is exactly my biggest problem with the anime: Chihiro’s thoughts and actions make no sense. He claims he doesn’t have any childhood memories. Someone then comes along and goes, “Yo, you killed your daddy!” You know what I would do? I would ask, “What do you mean? I’m sorry, I don’t remember. Can you show me evidence to corroborate your claims?” Okay, maybe I wouldn’t use the word “corroborate” in casual conversation, but you get what I mean, right? If you don’t remember jack shit, and someone claims to know something about you that you don’t know, why wouldn’t you press them for more information? All Chihiro does is look at the ground and clench his fist. The scene then conveniently ends. This is so stupid, and I feel dumber for watching it.

— We suddenly see Chihiro and Kotetsu at the hospital, because they always visit Ikuro. I barely know anything about Ikuro. He isn’t even a major character. Hell, he was barely onscreen before he was suddenly turned into a half-monster, half-man thing.

— Koume tells Kotetsu to go study. Study for what? The goal of their faction — both hers and Kotetsu — is to destroy Tokyo so that they can remake the world. What good is studying if that’s your endgame?

— Afterwards, our hero and his best bud bump into Marie and Tsubaki. These two ladies are both from the Guardian State, but they’re not here to fight. They’re here to ask for help. That beast has taken a lot of lives, and Jun is their primary suspect. As a result, Kotetsu volunteers his services. I guess we’ll just shelf the whole “destroy Tokyo” thing. I don’t really know what Kotetsu wants. He belongs to the Church faction, and if they get their way, it really doesn’t matter if some beast is running around killing people, does it? Look, I just want some consistency in these characters’ actions and motivations.

— Chihiro won’t be helping out with the investigation. Instead, he decides to visit that research lab from his fragmented memories. Why? So he can mope. He doesn’t do anything here. He just goes straight to the garden and stares at the flowers. I mean, are there perhaps clues here that could shed some light on his childhood? No, let’s not investigate. Since this is the fifth episode, and we haven’t really got much of a story, we may as well have the protagonist park his ass on a bench and do nothing.

— The next part is even better; the next part is a montage. Kotetsu and Tsubaki are going around town, looking for information on the beast. Inuki is trying to create some sort of red stone in his lab. Isshin and his former-assistant-turned-familiar continues to do some journalistic digging. Last but not least, Chihiro continues to sit. Exciting.

— After the long, wordless montage is finally over, we see Chihiro back at the hospital. Inuki drops the big news: he might have figured out a way to save people. Yay, we don’t have to destroy Tokyo after all! So who wants to tell Dux the bad news?

— These two then proceed to the roof and have the most inane conversation. Inuki tells Chihiro that they should be saving lives. Chihiro says that this is easier said than done, but c’mon, he hasn’t even tried any other option. He instantly joined the Church. He then claims he wants to be forgiven. Uh, okay. So why doesn’t he keep trying to save people then? He then says, “Because there’s no salvation no matter where I go.” What are you talking about? This is just the fifth episode. He hasn’t tried anything, so what is he talking about? One minute, he awakens to his powers, then another minute, he’s destroying barriers around Tokyo in order to prep it for the apocalypse. Fuck this guy. He’s just your generic pity-me hero. Writers think characters like Chihiro are deep and sensitive, but they just end up being pathetic, mopey bastards.

— Inuki promises the dude that if they work together, they can overcome anything! Chihiro even perks up for a second! But later that day, he has a nightmare about Inuki. Womp womp. Chihiro thus freaks out and calls Koume to check up on Inuki. Unfortunately, when the nurse goes to look for the doctor, she sees nothing but a huge mess in the lab and a broken window. Great, he’s the beast, isn’t he?

— Chihiro starts running through the streets in order to look for Inuki, but this is so stupid. Why? Because we’ve seen that these dorks can fly, so why is he running around on foot?

— He then gets sidetracked by the sound of children’s laughter. He looks into a daycare center and sees Yuri playing with a bunch of kids. Almost makes her look like a nice person, huh? I also love how some dude can creepily stare at the kids through a window, but nobody notices him.

— Elsewhere, Tsubaki hears a woman’s scream, so she goes to investigate. She’s immediately attacked by the beast. Before it can kill her, however, Kotetsu manages to scare the beast off.

— We then see the beast transform back into Inuki. I love that his research coat came back as well. Amazing. Just top notch work, you guys.